Professor who cut through Scott myths lectures at the Chemistry Centre

American atmospheric chemist Professor Susan Solomon lectured at the Chemistry Centre today on the doomed Scott expedition, the day after the centenary commemoration.

Professor Solomon wrote The Coldest March, which honoured Scott, whose reputation had been damaged by charges of bad leadership.

Her research into the weather in match 1912 proved that he and his team were overcome by freakishly cold weather that would have beaten any Polar team.

Professor Solomon, now of MIT, sits the advisory board of the Journal of Environmental Monitoring, published by the RSC.

Prof Solomon has worked at the South Pole, where her interest in Scott started.   

Her Antarctic work explained the cause of the hole in the ozone layer and she later served as co-chair of the Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change.